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Bruins Acquire Center Chris Kelly From Senators

UNIONDALE, NY - FEBRUARY 05: Chris Kelly #22 of the Ottawa Senators skates during an NHL hockey game against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on February 5, 2011 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images)

New Bruins Chris Kelly will not join the team until Friday in Ottawa. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images)

BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Bruins have acquired center Chris Kelly in a trade with the Ottawa Senators.

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli announced the deal after Boston’s 4-3 loss at home to Toronto on Tuesday night. The Bruins are tied with Montreal atop the Northeast Division.

“It was important to get this one done. We need help in a couple of areas and this is one of the areas,” said Chiarelli, a former assistant GM with the Senators who knows Kelly well from his days in Ottawa.

The Bruins learned last week that they will play the rest of the season without center Marc Savard, who was placed on long-term injured reserve on Monday with his second concussion in less than a year.

Boston sends Ottawa its second-round pick in this year’s draft in exchange for the 30-year-old Kelly, who had 12 goals and 11 assists this season for the Senators.

“He’s a smart player and a responsible player,” Chiarelli said. “He can play up the middle and he can play the wing, but
he’s a natural center.”

Kelly is under contract through the end of next season. In 462 career games, he has 75 goals and 101 assists.

Chiarelli said the Bruins, who were one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals last spring, are still in the market for another defenseman and hope to make another deal before the trade deadline Feb. 28.

The last-place Senators traded fan favorite Mike Fisher to Nashville last week for the Predators’ first-round pick in this
year’s draft.

One Comment

Well it goes to show the Bruins are still not contenders with this trade nor will they be with an additional defenseman. For the life of me the Jacobs family has to be the stingiest owners in today’s sports world.

The defense is solid with the addition of Kampher who is getting better each game. They need offense. We are fourth from last on the power play which easily tells a story. We simply can’t score with the man advantage, so the answer is another defenseman? Ha Ha. What a joke this organization is.

Like I said last week and I’ll say it again, Chirarelli is useless and Neely is a puppet. The jacobs family could care less whether or not a championship is ever won. They are a classless bunch of of owners who care about nothingmore than padding their own pockets!

its not about money the bruins spend the cap so stop with the cheap jokes its old and a mistake. the problem is they spend a buck its just that they would rather spend the buck on three guys instead of one

People need to calm down, Kate is right, it’s cap space and please let’s not forget we are 5th in scoring, so we have the skills to get the puck in the net.

While I agree that Kampfer is good, he’s still a rookie who hasn’t played this whole season, would you want him to be on the starting line going into a Cup final? I have to say that I’m questioning the defense a bit, I think Chara is finally hitting, but still doesn’t get as close to the net as he could. Boychuk isn’t the same as last season, sorry but he’s not and I’m not too sure I’d have sat Stu so much.

we are still in the playoff race oh and one more thing..the Canadiens knocked off Pitt and Washington in the playoffs last season and Philly made it to the Cup finals, did anyone actually see that coming during the season, doubt it. Don’t sell the B’s short and don’t say how far they’ll go I think there are plenty of Boston sports history to let you all know that any team can be any other team on any given day aka the Sox beating the Yankees in 7 and a little team called the Giants being the “perfect” Pats. Wait and see, at least until after the trade deadline, the sky isn’t falling yet.

There was a great stat from last night’s game – Kaberle has 22 Power Play assists this year. Thinking defensemen aren’t involved in the offense is a really simple way of thinking.

Personally, I’d rather add two or three good players than 1 big name player. I think this is a nice first move, but agree that if it’s the only move it won’t be enough barring one of those crazy playoff runs where a goalie just takes over.